Mom is only survivor of car crash that killed husband, 4 daughters

TOWNSEND, Del. – The sole survivor of a horrific Delaware car crash is Mary Rose Trinidad, whose husband and four children all died in the Friday accident, People reports. Trinidad was admitted to hospital with serious injuries and is currently in stable condition and alert.

Dead on the scene were Mary's husband, 61-year-old Audie Trinidad, and their daughters Kaitlyn, 20, Danna, 17, and Allison and Melissa, who were 13-year-old twins. Audie and his wife were restrained in the front, but the girls were not.

"I'm trying to keep it together," Audie's brother Daniel Trinidad tells the New York Post. "We don’t know how we will cope once reality sets in. They’re all gone, gone."

He describes them as "a God-fearing family" and says simply, "They're all gone in the blink of an eye. Their bodies in the morgue are unrecognizable."

The Record looks at Audie Trinidad, who grew up in the Phillippines and served in the Navy for seven years after moving to the US in 1987. He then worked for the postal service and lived in Teaneck, New Jersey, with his family.

"He was proud to be an American," Daniel says. "That's why he joined the Navy." The country's offer of a good refuge for him, and success for his family, was key to Audie's patriotism. "He wanted a better life for himself and a family," Daniel explains.

Hundreds gathered Saturday at a vigil in Teaneck to grieve the loss of the Trinidads, WPIX reports.

"Everyone that I knew who went to high school and middle school with them, I can see that they were a part of the Teaneck family," says Teaneck Mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin. "They touched our lives in many ways." Click to read about details of the crash.